RACTICAL  POLITICS 

A  LAY  SERMON 


DELIVERED  AT  ALL  SOULS  CHURCH,  SEPT.  13,  18 


PUBLISHED    BY 

THE    PUBLICATION    COMMITTEE    OF   ALL    SOULS    CHURCH 
CHICAGO 


PREFACE. 

At  the  urgent  request  of  friends,  this  "lay  sermon"  is 
put  in  permanent  form.  Much  of  it  is  of  merely  tem- 
porary moment,  as  any  such  direct  utterance  must 
necessarily  be.  I  am  strong  in  the  faith  that  within  a 
year  matters  will  have  been  so  changed  that  no  such 
Jeremiad  will  be  descriptive  of  our  national  or  local 
situation. 

The  thought  falls  into  two  categories:  The  National 
Issue,  upon  which  earnest  and  disinterested  men  may, 
and  do,  hold  honest  differences  of  opinion,  and  the 
Local  Government,  concerning  the  scandals  and  abomi- 
nations of  which  there  can  be  no  divided  opinion. 

As  one  who  knows  and  feels  acutely  the  suffering  of 
the  present  time,  and  has  with  open  mind  earnestly 
sought  the  causes;  as  one  whose  selfish  interests  would 
be  benefitted  by  the  silver  propaganda,  if  it  could 
benefit  any  one,  I  am  absolutely  unable  to  accept  it  as 
either  good  morals  or  correct  mathematics.  There 
are  multitudes  of  honest  men  who  hold  the  opposite 
view,  but  I  am  unable  to  follow  their  logic. 

Concerning  the  condition  of  municipal  and  local 
affairs,  I  would  state  that  every  detail  of  the  arraign- 
ment is  founded  upon  personal  knowledge.  The  half 

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has  not  been  hinted.  The  situation  is  so  utterly  bad  as 
to  stagger  anyone  not  accustomed  to  it.  The  most  un- 
just criticism  that  can  be  made  is  that  the  evils  are  ex- 
aggerated. I  could  produce  evidence  and  witnesses  of 
every  crime  charged,  if  there  were  any  use  in  so  doing, 
or  if  my  duty  lay  in  the  line  of  public  prosecutor.  If 
I  could  not  see  the  way  out,  I  would  not  have  burdened 
the  Chicago  public  with  a  statement  of  conditions 
which  are  already  public  property,  as  evidenced  by 
the  news  columns  of  responsible  journals  friendly  to 
the  administration. 

The  outlook  is  hopeful  and  the  sermon  optimistic, 
but  to  know  where  the  fighting  line  lies  and  the  char- 
acter and  strength  of  the  enemy,  is  the  first  move 
toward  the  victory  over — what? — ourselves! 


PRACTICAL  POLITICS. 

For  that  the  leaders  took  the  lead  in  Israel, 
For  that  the  people  offered  themselves  willingly, 
Bless  ye  the  Lord.    *    *    * 
Curse  ye,  Meroz,  said  the  angel  of  the  Lord. 
Curse  ye  bitterly  the  inhabitants  thereof. 
Because  they  came  not  to  the  help  of  the  Lord, 
To  the  help  of  the  Lord  against  the  strong  and  mighty. 

Song  of  Deborah. 

We  look  about  us  upon  a  scene  of  national  disaster, 
trembling  lest  worse  things  come  upon  us  ;  dishonor 
and  disgrace  hang  like  a  cloud  over  the  future  of  Amer- 
ica, and  want  and  misery,  already  at  our  doors,  make 
riot  inevitable  and  revolution  more  than  probable, 
unless  the  verdict  of  the  people  is  for  financial  solvency. 

We  ask  the  question,  "Is  not  representative  govern- 
ment a  failure?  "  and,  in  the  pleasures  of  self-satisfied 
pessimism,  forget  that  we  are  dealing  with  our  own 
delinquencies.  We,  the  misgoverned,  are  the  mis-gov- 
ernors ;  we  cannot  attribute  our  civic  ills  to  any  power 
of  darkness  outside  ourselves. 

In  this  bountiful  country  of  ours  there  is  too  much  of 
everything,  too  much  corn  and  oil  and  wine,  too  many 
clothes  and  too  many  shoes,  too  many  mouths  to  feed, 
too  many  hurrying  feet  to  wear  out  the  shoes. 

We  find  it  all  reduced  to  a  paradox,  a  reductio  ad 
absurdum,  and  we  are  face  to  face  with  the  only  solu- 

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tion  that  we  are  victims  of  a  system  of  distribution 
unjust  and  inadequate. 

It  is  due  to  misgovernment.  The  best  thought  of 
our  nation  is  bent  upon  production,  more  and  more  and 
more,  but  our  government  is  left  to  take  care  of  itself. 

Occasionally,  in  times  of  aggressive  emergency,  we 
have  been  roused  from  our  lethargy,  but  all  times  are 
times  of  emergency,  and  the  crop  of  tares  now  choking 
our  fields  has  long  been  growing  in  the  unplowed  corn 
rows. 

Our  government,  our  mutual  legal  relations,  concern 
law  and  order.  Predatory  wealth  and  envious  poverty 
have  bred  class  animosity  ruinous  to  all.  They  con- 
cern a  system  of  national  finance  and  credit,  and  that 
has  become  a  patchwork  of  inconsistent  heresies,  threat- 
ened with  utter  annihilation. 

There  is  no  coherence  in  the  plan.  Tariff  to-day, 
free  trade  to-morrow,  gold,  silver  or  paper  money,  de- 
pendent upon  a  vote  utterly  unskilled  in  political  econ- 
omy, largely  controlled  by  selfish  interests. 

A  few  motives  run  through  it  all.  The  greed  of 
wealth,  the  bitter  envy  of  ignorant  poverty,  the  craving 
of  the  politician  for  an  office. 

"For  that  the  leaders  took  the  lead  in  Israel.  For 
that  the  people  offered  themselves  willingly.  Bless  ye 
the  Lord."  Nothing  could  by  absolute  negation  better 
describe  our  situation. 

For  that  the  people  pay  no  heed.  For  that  the  in- 
competent stand  in  the  high  places,  and  for  that  selfish- 
ness hath  debauched  the  officeholders  ;  we  are  in  no 
state  for  thanksgiving. 

And  now,  after  years  of  this  sort  of  thing,  dema- 

6 


gogues,  having  rolled  all  human  woes  into  one  ball,  with 
a  list  of  symptoms  in  one  hand  and  a  cure-all  nostrum 
in  the  other,  are  abroad  in  this  pleasant  land  of  ours, 
and  the  well-to-do,  the  competent,  those  who  have  ordi- 
narily purchased  immunity  and  obtained  plenary  ab- 
solution from  the  results  of  civic  treason,  these  are 
shaken  in  the  midst  of  their  prosperity,  and  many  who 
are  already  suffering  believe  that  their  betterment  must 
come  from  any  policy  which  will  injure  those  whom 
they  regard  as  antagonists. 

Whom  can  we  blame  ?  Have  not  the  people  been 
laboriously  taught  that  partisanship  is  patriotism ;  that 
the  government  can  create  value,  that  it  is  its  duty  to 
spread  prosperity  like  butter  on  a  sandwich,  that  money 
is  capital  and  a  fiat  is  wealth  ?  Is  this  the  first  time 
that  the  patient  stump  has  groaned  under  the  burden  of 
the  liar  and  the  demagogue  ? 

Many  a  man,  whose  only  participation  in  govern- 
ment has  been  useless,  or  worse  than  useless,  now  raises 
his  voice  and  says :  "Representative  government  is  a 
failure.  Let  us  curse  politics  and  die."  But  it  is  no 
time  for  either.  It  is  a  time  for  work,  for  encourage- 
ment. 

Thank  Heaven!  the  competent  are  forced  into  the 
arena  for  self-preservation,  and,  when  this  storm  blows 
over,  they  must  stay  in  the  arena  and  work  in  unselfish 
devotion  or  they  will  go  down  in  the  general  wreck. 

The  disease  is  near  the  heart  of  our  system — no 
longer  a  question  of  details  of  tariff,  of  revenue,  or 
whose  business  the  government  should  assist,  but 
whether  or  not  the  American  people  should  stand  before 


the  world,  singly  and  collectively,  as  unworthy  of 
credit.  ->J 

It  seems  almost  incredible  that,  at  this  period  of  the 
world's  history,  a  nation  calling  itself  enlightened 
should  bring  up  for  discussion  as  the  issue  of  a  national 
campaign,  the  multiplication  table  and  the  Eighth 
Commandment. 

What  a  sorrowful  waste  of  energy  ;  what  a  damper 
on  Fourth  of  July  oratory,  perhaps  wholesome  after 
all,  for  we  are  taught  that  the  relics  of  the  fathers  of 
our  country  have  no  fetisch  efficacy  to  preserve  us  if  we 
do  not  labor  to  hold  to  the  paths  of  sanity  and  upright- 
ness. 

Representative  government  means  constant  watch- 
fulness on  the  part  of  the  governed.  There  is  nothing 
vicarious  about  it.  If  there  were  ever  as  cowardly  a 
question  asked  as  the  historic,  "  Is  life  worth  living  ?  " 
it  is  its  correlative,  "Is  representative  government  a 
failure  ?  " 

Representative  government  cannot  be  a  failure.  It 
is  the  ultimate  truth  of  men's  mutual  relations.  It 
may  be  overthrown  and  the  human  race  set  back  for 
centuries,  but  as  the  cloud  tends  to  the  sea,  so  must 
men  return  again  to  self-government.  There  is  no 
other  solution. 

Perhaps  1  ought  to  apologize  for  bringing  into  this 
pulpit  the  national  issues,  in  which  many  of  you  are 
better  versed  than  I,  but  the  great  question  before  us 
is  of  such  overwhelming  importance  that  it  cannot  be 
dismissed  from  our  minds,  and  the  causes  working  to 
our  national  injury  are  largely  identical  with  those 
which  disgrace  the  municipality. 

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In  each  case  the  competent,  who  have  allowed  our 
country  to  reach  its  present  danger  point,  have  evaded 
their  responsibilities  and  considered  "practical  poli- 
tics" as  synonymous  with  "dirty  business."  There  is 
a  large,  impractical  forum  builded  for  them  somewhere 
in  the  clouds,  where  men  may  kick  against  reflections 
of  mundane  pricks,  with  no  hurt  to  their  feet,  no  effect 
upon  the  thorns. 

We  have  so  far  advanced  in  thought  that  the  super- 
natural has  been  obliterated.  God  is  nature,  and  if 
ghosts  were  demonstrated  to  exist,  we  would  welcome 
them  into  the  realm  of  natural  history  and  a  careful 
classification. 

In  the  same  way,  all  is  practical,  and  the  man  who 
sneers  at  practical  politics  is  creating  the  condition 
which  his  dainty  existence  shuns. 

I  have  no  apology  to  make  when  the  question  of  our 
local  government  is  under  consideration;  it  is  apestilence 
of  which  I  have  been  a  part,  with  which  I  am  thor- 
oughly familiar. 

I  wish  I  were  capable  of  drawing  two  companion 
pictures  of  the  results  of  municipal  neglect.  The  first 
would  delineate  the  machines  you  permit  to  manage 
the  politics  of  this  city,  and  the  second  would  show  the 
officers  placed  in  nomination  by  the  machines  and 
elected  by  you,  the  agency  through  which  you  are  mis- 
governed by  the  grace  of  your  own  stupid  votes. 

The  first  picture,  the  machines,  would  show  three 
groups  of  figures — two  republican  factions  and  one 
democractic. 

There  are  in  them,  as  leaders,  the  worst  of  our  alder- 
men. There  are  franchise  jobbers,  and  there  are 

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brokers  in  corruption.  There  are  men  who  never  had 
a  visible  means  of  support.  There  are  gamblers  and 
other  known  criminals.  Were  it  the  time  or  place,  I 
would  heap  up  against  these  men  a  list  of  charges  that 
are  as  clearly  proven  as  human  evidence  can  prove  them, 
criminal  charges,  penitentiary  offenses  ;  but,  alas,  they 
could  not  be  clear  enough  to  be  effectual  in  a  state's  at- 
torney's office,  the  function  of  which  has  been  for  years, 
with  but  few  intervals  of  decency,  to  shield  public 
brigandage. 

It  is  only  fair  to  say  that  the  machines  grade  up  from 
this  level  to  reputable  men  who  associate  with  these 
workers  of  iniquity,  and  who,  in  the  name  of  party  or 
factional  loyalty,  wink  at  their  misdeeds.  The  ma- 
chines are  not  entirely  composed  of  criminals,  convicted 
or  otherwise,  but  the  ideal  is  selfishness,  and  they  are 
supported  by  loot. 

Perhaps  these  reputable  men  imagine  they  can  re- 
form such  organizations  from  the  inside  ;  they  say  so,  at 
any  rate.  Perhaps  they  are  actuated  by  political  ambi- 
tion, and  see  no  other  means  of  gratifying  it.  The  first 
proposition  has  been  described  as  analogous  to  reform- 
ing a  bad  egg  by  the  injection  of  more  egg.  It  was  said 
nearly  2,000  years  ago  :  "What  will  it  profit  a  man  if 
he  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?  "  Does 
not  this  answer  the  other  excuse? 

The  sole  idea  of  these  machines  is  plunder.  "What 
is  there  in  it  for  me  ? "  is  the  question  everywhere  and 
always.  Offices  of  meager  salary  are  eagerly  sought, 
provided  chances  of  spoils  are  great.  Reward  a  faith- 
ful heeler  by  making  him  an  alderman  at  $3  a  week. 
"  Oh,  for  a  job  in  the  assessor's  office  just  for  a  month  ! " 

10 


And  this  view  is  so  common  as  to  as  to  render  callous 
any  one  not  sensible  of  the  awfulness  of  it  all. 

There  is  not  a  statement  I  have  made  but  that,  by 
itself,  most  politicians  will  recognize  as  true,  but  the 
bald  wording  and  grouping  together,  they  might  pos- 
sibly resent. 

The  other  picture  is  of  this  city  as  it  is  now  governed 
by  the  officers  whom  these  machines  have  graciously  per- 
mitted you  to  elect. 

I  would  be  grossly  unfair  were  I  to  put  before  you  as 
something  new  in  our  municipal  conditions  the  picture 
of  our  present  administration.  We  had  expected  a 
great  change  for  the  better  in  the  ousting  of  the  former 
regime,  but  another  machine  took  its  place,  and  our 
disappointment  makes  the  picture  dark,  not  by  com- 
parison with  what  has  gone  before,  but  judged  by  hopes 
betrayed. 

Here  are  franchises  worth  millions  given  away  by  a 
shameless  majority  of  the  council,  sometimes  vetoed 
and  sometimes  encouraged  and  signed  by  the  mayor. 

Pay-roll  scandals  ;  frontage  frauds  and  forgeries  ; 
every  form  of  violation  of  civil  service  laws  ;  highway 
robberies  every  day ;  a  police  force,  some  of  the  mem- 
bers of  which  are  worse  than  the  criminals  they  are 
supposed  to  watch ;  policemen  who  are  not  permitted, 
if  they  would,  to  suppress  public  gambling ;  and  who, 
inspite  of  all  forms  of  malfeasance,  are  kept  in  position 
by  political  pull ;  justice  shops  that  blackmail  the  un- 
fortunate, that  sell  verdicts  to  good  customers  ;  consta- 
ble who  are  the  lowest  of  the  low  ;  saloons  running  in 
prohibition  districts  on  payment  of  blood  money ;  a 
drainage  board  given  over  to  spoilsmen ;  park  boards 

11 


who  have  to  heed  machine  clamor  in  employing  men; 
judges  whose  tenure  of  office  depends  upon  complying 
with  machine  demands ;  a  board  of  education  still  a 
victim  of  jobbery,  though  nobly  striving  to  climb  up 
out  of  the  mire  ;  revenues  deficient  from  tax  dodging 
on  the  part  of  citizens,  and  corruption  in  the  offices  of 
assessors;  and  a  county  commission  known  of  all  men. 
The  food  you  eat,  the  water  you  drink,  the  air  you 
breathe  are  tainted  by  politics.  Your  rights,  your 
property,  the  very  education  of  you  children,  have  long 
been  at  the  mercy  of  the  spoilsmen.  And  still  there 
are  men  who,  in  the  midst  of  all  this  incompetency  and 
theft,  woi'king  away  at  their  desks  doing  their  best, 
are  giving  the  city  some  sort  of  government,  which  is 
better  than  no  government  at  all  and  better  than  the 
average  voter  deserves. 

In  this  picture  there  is  sunshine,  mostly  of  hope  it 
is  true,  but  the  hope  is  justifiable.  We  have  on  our 
statute  books  the  best  civil  service  law  known.  It  is 
being  enforced  as  far  as  it  can  be  by  an  ideal  commis- 
sion. As  far  as  any  mechanical  agency  can  promote 
betterment  this  law  will  promote  it.  Its  working  will 
within  two  years  place  the  public  service  upon  a  busi- 
ness basis,  if  it  is  supported  and  upheld  by  men  who 
desire  such  an  end. 

The  law  will,  doubtless,  be  assailed  in  the  next  legis- 
lature. We  must  hold  this  gain  at  all  hazards.  If  any 
attempt  is  made  to  curtail  or  repeal  it,  Springfield 
should  be  swamped  by  an  indignant  Chicago  public;  and 
and  every  politician  who  would  abridge  or  abrogate 
this  municipal  declaration  of  independence  from  cor- 
ruption should  be  made  to  feel  the  heavy  hand  of  public 


wrath.  This  is  the  one  great  gain,  the  most  important 
step  toward  better  things. 

We  have  a  council  infinitely  bettter  than  that  of  a 
year  ago,  and  we  now  know  that  we  can  clean  out  the 
council  chamber  without  using  a  rope. 

For  the  fall  election  the  local  republican  ticket  is 
saddening.  This  was  considered  by  the  dominant  ma- 
chine a  "yellow  dog"  year,  and  the  ticket  is  largely  a 
yellow  dog  license,  a  year  when  any  one  could  be 
elected,  a  year  for  rewarding  the  faithful. 

In  this  Senatorial  district,  comprising  the  Third, 
Fourth  and  Thirty-Second  wards,  one  of  the  Repub- 
lican candidates  for  the  Legislature  has  the  worst  sort 
of  public  record,  and,  if  his  business  career  and  private 
life  are  considered,  his  nomination  is  an  insult  to  your 
intelligence.  An  independent  nominee  will  permit  you 
to  omit  him  from  your  choice. 

The  lists  of  county  commissioners  should  be  care- 
fully considered  in  the  light  of  trustworthy  information. 
It  is  your  duty  to  learn  how  to  scratch  your  ticket  and 
to  rebuke  the  sublime  impudence  of  the  county  machine 
if  Republicans ;  and  the  Democratic  machine,  if  Demo- 
crats. 

If,  in  this  pivotal  State  and  crucial  election,  the 
cause  of  National  honesty  goes  down  to  defeat,  those 
of  us  who  are  Republicans  can  blame  ourselves  for  per- 
mitting the  county  machine  to  nominate  a  local  ticket, 
which  is  only  a  dead  weight  to  carry,  and  around  which 
men  cannot  rally  with  any  real  enthusiasm  ;  and  those 
of  us  who  are  Democrats,  how  can  they  explain  their 
pai'ty's  position  at  the  present  juncture  ? 

And  yet,  the  politicians   have  but  rushed  in  to  fill  a 

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vacuum  caused  by  the  neglect  of  the  honest  and  com- 
petent. They  are  not  so  much  sinners  against  us,  as 
our  embodied  civic  sin.  And  the  worst  politician,  in 
the  midst  of  his  self-seeking,  does  more  for  the  commu- 
nity than  the  citizen  who  is  too  fine  to  take  up  the  <  'dirty 
business"  of  practical  politics.  Nor,  are  the  hands  held 
up  in  horror  at  the  misdeeds  of  officials  all  clean  hands. 
They  may  be  too  soft  for  the  stern  task  of  guiding  the 
tiller  of  the  ship  of  state,  but  the  stain  of  the  bribe  is 
not  to  be  sought  on  the  palms  of  the  recipient  alone. 

I  have  seen,  in  my  short  public  life,  the  most  shame- 
less corruption  that  can  be  conceived.  I  have  heard  it 
made  a  jest  by  men  who  should  wear  prison  stripes  for 
selling  their  constituents.  I  have  heard  it  lightly  dis- 
cussed by  men  of  capital,  who  should  adorn  the  stocks 
and  whipping  post,  if  the  prison  is  good  enough  for 
the  commodity  they  have  purchased.  Lecky  has  said: 
"There  is  one  thing  worse  than  corruption — it  is 
acquiescence  in  corruption." 

The  young  look  up  to  some  one  in  the  community, 
to  financial  success  or  to  official  position.  Shall  we 
choose  the  street  car  magnate,  who  has  debauched 
public  officials  and  repudiated  private  obligations ;  or 
the  city  official  who  has  betrayed  his  trust,  as  the  model 
for  our  children  to  follow  ?  When  so  much  of  so- 
called  success  is  the  sequence  of  moral  failure,  we  have 
chosen  a  hard  school  in  which  to  bring  up  our  children. 

Pulpit  and  reform  platforms  ring  with  vituperation 
of  the  saloon  and  the  saloon  power  in  politics.  Is 
selfishness  the  peculiar  property  of  the  saloon  ?  The 
saloon  may  be  the  poor  man's  club  ;  it  may  be  the  poor 
man's  gambling  house  ;  it  may  be  a  leading  cause  of  his 

14 


poverty  and  the  suffering  of  his  family.  Were  I  an 
omnipotent  being,  I  would  wipe  out  alcohol  from  the 
list  of  human  commodities  until  men  were  fit  to  use  it 
without  encompassing  their  ruin,  but  if  you  want  to 
find  the  place  where  politics  is  not  neglected  between 
elections,  go  to  the  saloon.  You  will  find,  perhaps  to 
your  surprise,  that  the  talk  is  largely  of  measures  for 
the  general  good,  and  you  would  feel  that,  to-day,  the 
saloon  is  more  nearly  the  forum  of  our  local  government 
than  the  church  or  the  club.  Even  the  average  saloon 
discussion  is  better  than  no  interest  at  all. 

It  is  argued  that  the  vote  that  controls  our  local 
politics  comes  from  the  saloon,  that  it  is  drunken,  sod- 
den and  ignorant.  What  an  admission  !  Do  the 
drunken,  the  sodden,  the  ignorant,  manage  the  private 
business  of  this  community  ?  Public  control  must 
come  from  some  source.  It  might  come  from  the 
counting-room  and  the  pulpit.  By  the  very  meaning 
of  the  word,  the  competent  may  rule  if  they  will,  and 
will  to  rule  justly  ;  for  men  must  have  leaders,  and  the 
neglect  of  the  intelligent  and  honest  is  the  opportunity 
of  the  demagogue. 

If  those  who  should  take  the  lead  in  Israel  hang 
back  from  their  duty,  let  them  hail  even  the  rule  of 
the  saloon  as  better  than  anarchy. 

Do  the  bribe-givers  come  from  the  saloon  ?  Are 
they  the  dregs  of  Europe  ?  Are  not  many  of  them  of  the 
best  blood  of  this  Nation  ?  Creatures  of  the  greed  of 
America — a  verdict  tempered  by  mercy  for  the  poor 
wretch  to  whom  a  bribe  may  represent  family  comfort. 
What  should  the  verdict  be  for  him  who,  from  the 
raised  platform  of  education  and  intelligence,  seeking 

15 


only  to  play  the  game  of  greed,  debauches  government 
and  perverts  justice  ? 

You  say  the  task  of  reformation  is  hard,  that  it  is 
too  complicated,  that  common  decency  in  government 
is  an  iridescent  dream. 

A  change  is  a  matter  of  vital  necessity;  it  is  better- 
ment or  absolute  ruin,  just  government  or  revolution, 
common  sense  or  chaos. 

Politics  is  not  too  complicated  for  the  worst  among 
us.  Are  you  unequal  to  the  problems  solved  in  their 
own  way  by  the  saloons  and  the  slums? 

You  say  that  the  corrupt  machines  are  too  firmly 
intrenched.  They  are  periodically  ousted  by  machines 
as  corrupt. 

They  have  been  recently  shaken  by  a  machine  which 
worked  unselfishly  for  decency;  join  the  forces  of  de- 
cency and  finish  the  task,  and  work  and  work  and 
work  to  hold  the  gain,  for  there  is  no  end  of  labor 
under  the  sun.  "You  cannot  run  politics  with  a  meat 
axe,"  said  a  machine  leader,  disparaging  the  courageous 
work  of  the  Voters'  League.  "Not  if  you're  making 
a  living  out  of  politics,"  retorted  the  president  of  that 
body. 

Were  I  to  outline  a  practical  course  of  duties  from  a 
nonpartisan  standpoint,  from  now  until  after  the  spring 
campaign,  I  would  advise  that  every  man  to  whom  civ- 
ilization has  loaned  a  competence  or  an  intelligence  and 
an  education,  should  at  once  offer  himself,  and  what 
funds  he  can  spare,  to  the  cause  of  educating  the  un- 
thinking who  will  suffer  first  and  most  from  their  folly, 
if  it  prevail. 

Either  the  sound  money  organization,  which  is  non- 
16 


partisan,  the  Republican  headquarters,  or  the  honest 
money  Democrats,  can  use  you.  If  they  cannot  see 
where  to  use  you,  find  a  place  of  usefulness  for  your- 
self, and  work,  remembering  that  our  national  honor  is 
at  stake.  In  the  national  issue  drop  all  minor  differ- 
ences and  vote  for  McKinley,  which  is  a  whole  vote, 
and  not  a  half  vote,  for  a  sound  money  system  of  cur- 
rency. 

If  your  legislative  candidates  are  not  satisfactory  on 
the  essential  point  of  civil  service  reform,  or  if  you 
cannot  trust  them,  nominate  others  by  petition,  and  see 
to  it  that  the  voters  of  the  district  are  informed  of  their 
chance  to  elect  a  decent  man. 

Go  over  your  ballot  carefully  and  scratch  it  con- 
scientiously. There  may  be  small  choice  between  the 
leading  parties  below  the  top  of  the  ticket,  but  there 
is  some. 

You  will  not  have  the  chance  to  vote  for  township 
abolition,  owing  to  the  action  of  your  Republican 
county  machine.  The  present  scheme  is  the  roosting 
place  of  a  flock  of  buzzards,  who  should  be  making  an 
honest  living,  and  is  the  proximate  cause  of  our  unjust 
and  unequal  taxation.  Remember  it  in  voting  for 
county  commissioners. 

After  the  November  issue  is  settled,  and  you  have 
learned  whether  you  live  in  a  solvent  nation  fit  for 
commercial  fellowship  with  civilized  people,  join  the 
Municipal  Voters'  League.  Try  to  aid  party  nomina- 
tions of  decent  men  for  the  mayor's  chair,  men  who  are 
not  politicians,  men  of  honorable  records  in  this  com- 
munity, who  are  capable  of  carrying  that  gigantic  re- 
sponsibility, men  who  are  not  to  be  tied  down  with 

17 


campaign  promises,  whose  only  pledge  will  be  the 
solemn  oath  of  office. 

You  may  not  succeed  in  this.  The  League  will  see 
to  it  that  there  is  at  least  one  candidate  worthy  of  your 
suffrage.  Vote  for  him,  elect  him,  and  you  will  see  a 
new  city. 

There  are  many  other  officers  to  be  treated  in  the 
same  way,  they  must  be  so  treated,  and  they  will  be. 

In  your  ward  pick  the  best  man  for  alderman,  not  a 
good  fellow,  but  a  staunch,  sturdy  man  and  a  man  of 
means.  The  jail  ought  to  be  full  of  good  fellows  who 
have  gotten  out  of  place.  To  nominate  a  poor  man  for 
alderman  is  either  to  abuse  the  man  or  to  let  him  abuse 
you.  Three  dollars  a  week  is  hardly  adequate  pay  for 
handling  millions  of  dollars.  No  honest  poor  man  can 
afford  in  justice  to  himself  to  take  the  position.  An 
idiotic  charter,  by  limiting  the  salary  to  that  ridiculous 
figure,  has  unfortunately  barred  such  a  man  from  hold- 
ing the  office.  Vote  for  the  best  man  nominated  in 
matters  of  city  administration.  National  party  lines 
in  municipal  government  are  an  evil  unfortunately  still 
with  us,  but  to  be  ignored  in  behalf  of  fitness  and  char- 
acter.  It  has  been  well  said  that  the  union  of  national 
parties  and  city  government  results  in  the  disgrace  of 
the  one  and  the  demoralization  of  the  other. 

The  solution  is  so  simple.  Unselfish  work — not  a 
little  of  it,  but  a  great  deal  of  it.  Look  back  over 
your  lives  and  consider  how  much  you  have  done 
toward  the  perpetuation  in  purity  and  honor  of  this 
government  for  which  a  million  lives  have  gone  out  in 
the  agony  of  strife.  Back  of  our  short  life  as  a  nation 
the  long  birth  pangs  of  constitutional  liberty  in 

18 


Europe,  and  back  of  that  the  dreary  reaches  of  the 
climb  of  evolution.  You  can  never  repay  the  debt. 
Pay  honest  interest  upon  it  in  the  best  efforts  of  your 
lives. 

A  few  men  in  this  community  have  pointed  out  the 
way,  and,  by  grace  of  their  intelligent  leadership,  our 
city  will  be  farther  along  in  the  process  of  redemption 
next  spring. 

Similar  vigilance  would  soon  force  decency  into  the 
politics  of  the  state,  for,  though  one  man  may  vote 
wrong  for  self-interest,  another's  self-interest  will 
nullify  the  result,  and  the  altruistic  vote  will  infallibly 
hold  the  balance  of  power. 

The  practical  politics  of  these  selfish  machines  is  a 
colossal  bluff.  The  politician  spreads  the  shade  of  his 
branches  over  a  large  section  of  the  earth,  but  his  tap 
root  is  in  his  own  precinct,  and  his  foundation  as 
narrow  as  his  ward.  He  must  listen  to  the  voice  of 
honesty,  if  it  is  audible,  or  his  destruction  is  at  hand. 

The  uninitiated  look  at  the  branches  and  believe  the 
task  of  removal  is  impossible.  If  we  hew  at  the  root 
with  the  strength  of  right  the  branches  will  wither  and 
rot  and  blow  away,  and  the  tree  will  not  long  encumber 
the  earth.  There  is  nothing  esoteric  or  mysterious 
about  politics ;  a  good  cause  and  enthusiasm  will 
beat  any  machine  of  self-seekers.  Organize  your 
district,  hang  one  motto  on  the  wall,  of  one  word, 
"Unselfishness,"  and  live  up  to  it.  Learn  where  and 
how  nominations  are  made,  and  use  your  influence  to 
secure  proper  and  adequate  ones. 

If  primaries  and  party  machinery  are  controlled  for 
evil,  it  is  easy  to  go  outside  of  party  machinery  and  to 

19 


break  it  in  pieces.  The  right  to  nominate  by  petition 
enables  you  to  ignore  primary  judges  and  primary 
clerks  in  local  matters,  if  they  are  disposed  to  prevent 
popular  choice.  Party  machinery  without  votes  is  a 
pitable  sight,  but  one  to  be  diligently  sought  for  until 
the  machinery  contains  one  element  now  almost  utterly 
lacking — unselfishness. 

Most  of  us  have  scarcely  given  our  government  a 
thought  between  elections.  It  is  supposedly  instituted 
for  all  of  us,  as  directed  by  the  best  of  us,  but  has  be- 
come largely  the  rule  of  the  purchasable  among  us  for 
the  benefit  of  the  purchasers,  or  an  indiscriminate 
hodge-podge  of  sometimes  well-meaning  ignorance.  All 
that  we  have  accomplished  in  a  material  way  is  threat- 
ened by  neglect  of  this  one  thing  needful. 

The  connection  between  national  and  city  affairs 
ought  not  to  be  based  upon  the  line  of  party  policy,  but 
it  manifestly  exists  on  the  ground  of  citizenship.  The 
same  elements  of  dissolution  are  seen  in  both.  The 
whole  is  the  sum  of  its  parts,  and  our  national  distress 
is,  in  no  small  measure,  due  to  the  civic  sins  of  this 
community. 

What  wonder  that  our  land  is  full  of  discontent  ? 
Where  are  the  poor  and  the  unfortunate  of  this  city 
before  the  law  ?  Their  highest  court  is  the  justice- 
shop,  the  creature  of  dirty  politics  ;  the  officials  they 
meet  are  of  the  worst.  They  hear  nothing  but  the 
blackest  side  of  government,  and  are  usually  its  saddest 
victims.  They  know  that  they  suffer ;  they  know 
that  they  are  wronged.  They  listen  to  the  voice  of  the 
demagogue,  who  has  learned  the  story  of  their  sorrow, 


and  accept  the  quack  remedy  which  he  holds  out  to 
them. 

And  the  farmer,  the  man  we  sometimes  call  a  repu- 
diation! st — in  what  school  has  he  been  educated  ?  A 
railroad  has  recently  been  built  without  government 
aid  upon  honest  capitalization  from  San  Francisco  to 
Fresno,  up  the  San  Joaquin  Valley.  Despite  the 
economic  waste  of  parallel  railways,  it  can  make  six  per 
cent,  by  charging  just  half  what  the  Southern  Pacific 
Railway  has  charged,  and  the  farmers  have  paid,  all 
these  years. 

Having  contributed  by  taxation  his  share  of  govern- 
ment expense,  and  having  paid  in  addition  extortionate 
rates  to  a  merciless  monopoly,  can  one  wonder  that  he 
now  asks  who  is  in  possession  of  the  fruits  of  his  toil, 
or  that  he  favors  a  sort  of  retaliation,  unable  to  see  that 
the  form  taken  by  retaliation  would  be  worse  for  him 
in  the  end  than  the  injury  he  seeks  to  remedy. 

Too  many  Vanderbilts  have  damned  the  public,  too 
many  rich  men  have  been  kept  out  of  jail  by  expensive 
lawyers.  There  have  been  too  many  Northern  Pacific 
railways  and  too  many  Union  loops.  Were  there 
nothing  but  unreasoning  anarchy  behind  the  demon- 
stration of  class  hostility,  it  would  be  founded  upon 
the  whirlwind  and  blow  away,  for  the  game  of  politics 
is  nothing  but  a  bluff  and  a  bubble. 

Upon  the  very  real  danger  of  an  alien,  irreconcilable 
population,  Dennis  Kearney  founded  the  Sand  Lot  Party; 
upon  the  abuses  of  railways  the  populists  have  their 
footing.  Our  governor,  the  inconsistent  and  contra- 
dictory, finds  in  the  real  evils  that  beset  the  poor 
through  the  oppression  of  the  well-to-do,  whether 

21 


directly  or  through  the  officers  of  the  law,  a  fertile 
field  in  which  to  sow  the  seeds  of  anarchy. 

When  we  hear  the  clamor  of  the  unfortunate,  we  are 
apt  to  fall  back  with  complacency  upon  the  dogma  of 
the  survival  of  the  fittest,  ignoring  the  fact  that  we  in 
a  certain  measure  create  the  standard  of  the  fitness. 

Yes,  we  have  been  victims  of  the  doctrine  of  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest  when  we  have  elected  to  choose  as 
the  fittest  those  with  the  most  dollars.  We  have  set  up 
a  standard  of  excellence  that  may  be  begged,  borrowed 
or  stolen.  Yes,  one  that  may  be  contracted,  expanded 
or  wiped  out  of  existence;  and,  in  passing,  it  might  be 
remarked  that  the  free  coinage  idea  can  hardly  be 
called  a  reform  in  the  standard,  for  we  have  no  reason 
to  believe  that  those  with  the  most  half  dollars  will  be 
any  fitter. 

If  we  had  before  us  lives  ten  times  as  long  as  the 
present  expectancy,  and  if  we  had  reason  to  believe  that 
future  generations  would  profit  more  by  our  experience 
than  we  have  profited  by  the  experiences  of  the  past,  we 
could  hail  with  joy  the  awakening  force  of  a  victory 
of  all  the  doctrines  put  forth  in  the  name  of  class  ani- 
mosity, by  the  party  that  threatens  the  overturning  of 
every  vessel  of  commerce  and  the  waste,  not  the  redis- 
tribution, of  accumulated  industry,  capital. 

But  we  have  forgotten  the  mistake  of  the  French  rev- 
olution ;  we  have  no  remembrance  of  the  history  of  the 
earlier  struggles  of  our  country  with  irredeemable 
money;  we  cannot  see  in  the  experiences  of  any  other 
nation  texts  for  our  own  guidance,  and  now  we  must 
fight  the  battle  out  for  ourselves,  as  though  history  had 
never  been  written. 

22 


Not  in  bitterness  and  epithets,  but  in  patience  and 
kindness,  must  we  labor  to  undo  the  consequences  of 
neglect.  We  must  teach  the  mutual  dependence  of  men 
and  the  mutual  necessity  of  trust,  and  of  confidence  that 
is  justified. 

I  have  tried  to  put  before  you  a  picture  of  the  present 
situation.  It  could  be  nothing  but  a  rough  sketch,  a 
bare  outline.  The  inexcusable  greed  of  wealth,  the  un- 
discriminating  envy  of  poverty.  Corruption  in  office, 
corruption  in  elections,  corruption  in  nominations. 
Stupid  neglect  on  the  part  of  the  competent,  bitter  ignor- 
ance of  the  incompetent.  The  lying  appeals  of  the 
demagogue  to  low  impulses  and  lower  intelligence.  The 
insatiable  appetite  of  the  politician. 

We  have  had  one  standard  of  morals  for  our  churches 
and  charities,  another  for  our  business  dealings,  while 
our  mutual  relations,  through  the  sacred  forms  of  law, 
have  been  forced  to  do  without  any  system  of  morals  at 
all. 

Our  government  is  not  representative  of  the  average 
morality,  though  it  doubtless  is  what  we  deserve.  If 
we  do  not  put  ourselves  in  the  way  of  deserving  some- 
thing better,  oh!  the  weary  way  our  children  must 
travel  up  out  of  the  Slough  of  Despond  where  we  will 
have  left  them. 

Whether  we  look  at  the  broad  field  of  finance,  where 
stock-watering  and  merciless  trickery  prevail,  or  the 
narrower  life,  where  the  farmer  and  the  country  buyer 
play  hide  and  seek  with  the  scales  we  have  no  cause  to 
congratulate  ourselves  upon  our  honesty  as  a  people ; 
but  our  private  morals  are  still  pure  and  holy  in  compar- 
ison with  our  civic  life — that  is  an  ulcer  steadily  eating 

23 


into  nation's  stamina.  It  must  be  burned  out  by  the 
fire  of  unselfish  effort. 

The  fact  must  be  self-evident  that  matters  are  terri- 
bly in  the  wrong.  Whether  we  look  at  our  interests 
as  stockholders  in  this  corporation  of  Chicago,  whose 
officers  and  board  of  directors  are  looting  it  under  our 
eyes,  or  whether  we  scan  the  wider  field,  where  we  are 
struggling  to  hold  to  the  very  alphabet  of  political 
economy,  there  is  more  than  enough  to  sicken  our  souls. 

The  path  to  climb  up  out  of  this  valley  of  shadow  is 
before  us.  There  is  hard  work,  but  satisfactory, 
strengthening  work,  and  there  is  a  pleasure  in  feeling 
that  we  are  equal  to  the  task.  Let  each  do  his  indi- 
vidual duty  and  study  how  he  may  co-operate  with  others. 
It  is  absurd  to  abuse  machinery  and  bosses,  per  se.  The 
motive  is  the  salvation  or  the  damnation  of  political 
machinery. 

What  we  most  need  are  trusted  leaders,  deserving 
our  trust.  What  we  next  need  is  a  method  of  expres- 
sing our  opinion  by  an  organized,  thoughtful  majority. 
We  are  pledged,  as  citizens  of  this  nation,  to  abide  by 
the  verdict  of  that  majority,  whether  thoughtful  or  not. 
We  must  labor  all  the  days  of  our  lives  to  increase  the 
intelligence  of  that  verdict,  and  in  the  growth  of  in- 
telligent interest  must  rest  the  hope  that  we  leave  for  our 
children  after  us.  We  cannot  reconstruct  the  human 
race,  but  we  can  drag  political  life  up  to  our  average 
level ;  if  we  do  not,  it  will  level  things  by  dragging  us 
down,  If  selfish  greed  is  our  standard,  truly  we  must 
acknowledge  failure  in  advance,  and  may  expect  nothing 
but  misery  in  reaching  that  end. 

The  outlook  is  dark  enough,  but  it  is  the  darkness 

24 


before  the  dawn.  Beneath  all  the  sins  of  wealth  and 
the  besetting  crime  of  ignorance,  there  is  still  character, 
thank  God,  yes,  and  sense  in  the  American  people. 
They  are  awakening  to  their  position  and  they  will  rise 
to  the  emergency. 

We  must  not  wait  for  an  impersonal  something  to 
do  the  work.  We  have  been  the  neglectful ;  we,  the 
greedy ;  we,  the  ignorant.  Here  and  now  is  our  op- 
portunity ;  our  duty  is  before  us  ;  not  here,  but  wher- 
ever we  may  be ;  not  now,  but  ever  day.  We  must 
work.  We  must  learn,  and  our  nation  will  live. 

Let  us  shatter  the  stupid  dictum  of  those  who,  in  the 
weakness  of  inanition,  despair  of  popular  government, 
as  it  was  said  that  the  outworn  creed  of  an  ancient  bigot 
was  shattered  when  his  hope  of  Hell  was  taken  away. 

Would  to  God  I  could  burn  the  lesson  into  you  as  it 
has  been  burned  into  me.  The  awf  ulness  of  our  trea- 
son to  the  sufferings  of  the  past,  the  heritage  of  misery 
we  are  leaving  to  our  children,  by  this  criminal  neglect 
of  our  mutual  relations. 

Would  that  every  man  who  continues  such  neglect 
could  feel  upon  him  the  brand  of  Cain  in  that  he  has 
been  false  to  the  nearest  duty,  to  his  own  self-respect, 
and  to  humanity. 


25 


A     000  090  401     1 


